The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : In Asansol, parties turn blind eye to illegal mining

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Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

In Asansol, parties turn blind eye to illegal mining

Pratim Ranjan Bose

ASANSOL

The visit to Nandigram, a village under Jamuria municipality in the Asansol coal belt bordering Jharkhand, was conditional. "You will be introduced as a party from Dhanbad interested in opening a `koyla khadan' (coal mine) on my land and should behave accordingly," says Anup Bhattacharya. He is a resident of the same village and has already sold land for illegal coal mining. Photography is strictly prohibited "or else your life will be under threat."

Mr. Bhattacharya is not kidding. Such is the scale of the illegal mining and so great are the profits that no one dares to stick his neck out and oppose it. Not only that, the illegal mining has become the mainstay of the local economy in the absence of opportunities from agriculture in a barren region; so much so that both the authorities and the local political parties turn a blind eye to it, especially during election time.

Just 500 metres from the Jamuria municipality and a kilometre away from the residence of the local MLA, thousands of people are in action around 200-odd wells, which are 40-45 feet deep and five feet wide. Inside each well, about a dozen people, the poorest of the poor tribals from Jharkhand, are scooping out coal from `rat hole' tunnels at the base of the well, parallel to the ground. An equal number of locals are above ground, raising the coal in baskets through pulleys fixed on bamboo poles. The coal is loaded on bullock carts and taken to the nearby `fuel coke plants' (Star, Jaganmata, Raja, Bharat) acting as illegal godowns in and around Jamuria, from where they will be loaded on to trucks to make their journey out of the State and even to Bangladesh through the night.

There are at least 1000 such mines along a 20-km stretch in Jamuria covering Nandigram, Sankri Danga, Banamalipur, Baijayantipur, employing 25,000 people and producing close to 20,000 tonnes of coal. An even greater number of people are kept busy servicing the trade, including overseeing the mine operations, keeping accounts, arranging transport and paying off the authorities.

The daily production of coal in Jamuria, Barabani and Ranigunj (all under Asansol Parliamentary constituency) is estimated to almost equal the Eastern Coalfields' (ECL) production of 30-40,000 tonnes, generating over Rs. 5 crore a day! But more important, illegal mining offers employment opportunities to a greater number of people than the one lakh employed by Eastern Coalfields. Considering that most of the land in the area is either single crop or barren, illegal mining is therefore the mainstay of the economy at least in Ranigunj, Barabani and Jamuria. Naturally, none of the political parties dare oppose it.

"It [illegal mining] is the deciding factor in the electoral politics of Asansol. Whosoever tries to stop it will do so will pay the price," confides a Trinamool Congress leader in Asansol. The party's Parliamentary candidate, Malay Ghatak, says the CPI (M) is responsible for the state of affairs. The CPI (M) nominee and present MP, Bikash Chowdhury, says it is the Trinamool Congress in the State and the Centre's policies that are to blame for the lack of economic growth in the region. The result is that illegal mining thrives both in the CPI (M)-controlled Jamuria and the Trinamool-controlled Barabani in equal measure.

Beyond politics, however, illegal mining is causing havoc with the environmental and social life of India's oldest coal belt. The illegal mining is done without any concern about safety and technology. Every month several miners get trapped inside the underground rat hole tunnels as land subsides. Their bodies are never recovered. The incidents go unreported unless it is too big to be hidden as happened in Lalband in Barabani in 2001, when at least 70 people were reported trapped in a cave-in. But since the victims were all poor tribals, silence was easily purchased. "At least five people got trapped in Nandigram in two separate accidents in February and April this year," says Mr. Bhattacharya.

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